High gas prices provide an incentive for fleet vehicle operations managers to deploy systems designed to improve fuel consumption. While systems have been designed to improve efficiency of internal combustion engines, few are directed to improve driver behavior. As opportunities to conserve fuel become important to fleet managers, vehicle fuel consumption systems which help modify driver behavior become more valuable. There presently exists an unserved need for fuel conservation systems which are primarily directed to modification of driver behavior.
Systems that warn a driver of increased fuel consumption are known. For example, known systems detect aggressive acceleration maneuvers and deceleration maneuvers that may be inconsistent with careful fuel consumption and provide indications that this driving behavior has occurred. These systems are problematic because they are inaccurate and have low fidelity, which tends to result in these systems being ignored and dismissed as incorrect. It is sometimes necessary to handle a car with assertiveness under some circumstances. A driver would ignore a message telling him about increased fuel consumption during such maneuvers because the maneuvers may have been necessary under the traffic conditions.
Some known systems provide an analog fuel consumption meter that indicates fuel consumption rates in a ‘miles per gallon’ estimate via a moving needle gauge. Anytime a driver depresses the accelerator in a vehicle with such a system, the gauge moves promptly to near zero, and anytime the driver removes pressure from the accelerator the gauge promptly moves to +30 mpg (for example). These gauges are routinely ignored by drivers as even a most inattentive driver is aware that depressing the accelerator results in fuel consumption.
Known systems do not provide information related to excess fuel consumption. The gauges described above may indicate increased fuel consumption but they do not indicate excess consumption of fuel. Known systems do not compare an actual amount of fuel used to an amount that should have been used given the situation.
Know systems typically do not use information from aftermarket sensors added to the vehicle to determine the increased fuel consumption. For example, known systems do not include accelerometers. Known systems simply calculate a decrease in speed over time (e.g., using the same information used by the vehicle's speedometer) and conclude that there was a hard braking event that was either unsafe or wasted fuel. Known systems do not calculate the ideal fuel consumption for that maneuver. Known systems do not provide actionable information in real time. Known systems do not consolidate information for the driver and/or the driver's manager (for example) so they can review the information and better understand how to improve fuel efficiency.